The Constitution Isn’t Silly Putty, Even Though They Treat it that Way
I loved playing with Silly Putty when I was a kid. My favorite Silly Putty activity involved pressing it onto newsprint. The putty would pick up whatever was underneath – creating a mirror image. I thought it was a hoot to press it on the Sunday comics and get a...
John Dickinson and Originalism
I hear it all the time. “Originalism” is not only backward, it’s wrong!” By “wrong” the people holding this position point to the nationalists of the founding generation, those who, after the Constitution was ratified, advanced a...
Was Justice Scalia an Old Originalist?
One of the standard distinctions these days is between the old originalism and new originalism. While different people define the distinction a little bit differently, I define the old originalism as having two essential characteristics: using “original intent” to...